West Orange School District officials said Yonitch, who teaches fifth grade, has taught at Washington Elementary School for the past nine years. Drivers leaving the faculty parking lot Thursday didn’t want to speak, offering nothing more than “no comment.”

At Yonitch’s home in Livingston, there appeared to be someone inside, but no one answered the door. Slattery spoke to a next-door neighbor.

“That’s really very sad because he had two step-daughters, two of them. I see them and think, fine, never hear anything about them,” Mary Gerges said.

Yonitch was charged with three counts of sexual assault and three counts of endangering the welfare of a child, allegedly all with the same girl. Slattery spoke to the mother of an 11-year-old who was a student in Yonitch’s class last year.

“I’m concerned for my daughter because she said he was a favorite teacher last year,” Carmen Gonzalez said.